The “Grain Agreement” must be extended for a year – UN

UkrAgroConsult

It is necessary to extend the validity of agreements on the export of grain from Ukraine, agreed by Kyiv and Moscow, which expires on November 19. “It should go beyond the four-month cycle. We need to extend it by a year,” said Martin Griffiths, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, on Monday, October 10, according to AFP.

At the same time, the Joint Coordination Center, which was created as part of the agreements, emphasizes that their action should continue automatically for the next 120 days “unless one of the parties notifies the other of its intention to terminate or change it.”

Ukraine and Russia, through the mediation of Turkey, signed separate agreements with the UN on the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea on July 22. As of October 9, thanks to the agreements, 305 ships exported 6.8 million tons of food from Ukrainian ports.

The UN is talking about expanding opportunities for the Russian Federation

The agreements concern not only Ukrainian grain, but also the export of Russian food products and fertilizers, which were previously sanctioned by Western countries. However, Russia claims that due to other sanctions affecting its financial and logistics sectors, fertilizer and food exports remain effectively blocked.

Now Griffiths says the arrangements need to be “updated and perhaps even expanded to include more fertilisers”. In particular, he hopes to reach agreements on the export of ammonia, AFP writes.

In a week, the deputy secretary general, together with the head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Rebecca Greenspan, who participated in the negotiations on the agreement, plans to visit Moscow to meet with high-ranking Russian officials.

Tags: Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, export, grain, fertilisers